A Thousand Things
by The EmberWitch
Summary: A completed one-shot of Lenne and Shuyin's last moments... or at least, what I think they would have been like. Rated PG-13 just to be on the safe side


Author's Note: This is a completed one-shot of Shuyin and Lenne's last moments together. It's not wonderful, I'll admit, but I just wrote it and spellchecked it... so not a lot of work gone into it  
Contains implied character death and minor (well, I think it's minor) violence  
This is my first fic, so please read and review!   
  
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I start up the machina carefully, following to the metphorical letter the instructions burned into my mind. After all, it would be foolish of me to risk activating any defences... at the very least, I should wait until the welcoming commitee arrives... I'd wager my last Gil that my entry to the machina lab has not passed completely un-noticed.  
  
Glancing toward the door, I wonder if I maybe I have enough time to escape after all... if there's some slight chance or fortune that means I can complete this mission and return home unscathed...  
  
It's then that I see her.  
  
The most beautiful woman in Spira, her rich brown hair shining in the dim light of the lab, large dark eyes fixed upon me as she steps up onto the plaform and glares at me.  
  
"What in Spira do you think you are doing! A foolhardy and reckless mission ever I saw one!" Tears fill the dark eyes as she looks imploringly at me, hands clasped before her in what seems to be a traditionally pleading gesture - until, that is, you notice the set of her shoulders and her stubborn chin.  
  
"How do you think you will be able to get away with this... thing!" She waves a dismissive hand at the machina I stand aboard. "You can't surely expect to be able to ride out of here unchallenged - and surely someone would notice that their prize weapon is missing, and when that happens, you'll have a dozen squadrons on your heels, surer than the sky over Besaid is blue..." As I watch, her eyes fill with horrified comprehension as the only possible answer dawns upon her.  
  
"No... you can't..." A single tear traces it's silvery path down one pale cheek, one hand pressed to her lips to smother the sob emerging from within. "Please, Shuyin... tell me I have it wrong... that you're not going to... to..."  
  
"To destroy Vegnagun and as many of the enemy soldiers as possible? To sacrifice my life to save thousands of people... and the woman I love? I sigh inaudibly, looking down on her with regret for all that we could have been, had it not been for the enemy, for this war, for her duties as a Summoner...  
  
"I'm sorry, Lenne, but I once promised that I would never lie to you, and I'm not about to start now..."  
  
The gauzy blue material of her sleeves flares dramatically about her as she raises her arms, as if such a gesture from a single human, no matter how beautiful, or how powerful a Summoner, could bar the path of Vegnagun.  
  
"I won't let you do this! I won't let you die like this, won't let you die for me...  
  
She looks up at me, her beautiful eyes filled with unshed tears... tears for herself, tears for me... but most of all, tears for all that could have been... all that should have been... all that we could have had together... but that now, we never will...  
  
As I look into her eyes - eyes a man like myself could easily drown in, eyes that I would give anything to be able to gaze into for all of time - she smiles at me... the most beautiful smile I have ever seen... and whispers sofly to me, so quiet I can barely hear her words...  
  
"Shuyin, I- Aaaa!" Her whispered words become a gasp, a strangled exclamation of pain, the unshed tears slowly tracing a path down her cheeks as she crumples slowly toward the ground, bright fluid spreading across the material of her shirt.  
  
Strange... the white-hot searing pain of the bullet, tracing it's path through my chest, seems alien, distant, almost as if it is happening to someone else... but no, the warm liquid seeping to the floor beneath me, it tells me otherwise.... 


End file.
